


The Best Family

by FrozenSnares



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Cute, F/M, Fluff, Kissing, M/M, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, garden party
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-14
Updated: 2015-06-14
Packaged: 2018-04-04 10:22:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,097
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4133925
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FrozenSnares/pseuds/FrozenSnares
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rickon and Shireen work through a small family issue.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Best Family

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Direwaggle42](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Direwaggle42/gifts).



> For the fabulous Direwaggle42! Thanks for suggesting the prompt, though I kinda ran with it. I hope it lives up to your expectations!

Shireen was bouncing up and down, pacing every bit of the apartment. Shaggydog had been following her for the past hour, but even he had gotten tired of constantly moving about. The energy running through Shireen simply wouldn’t dissipate today, and she was more than happy to welcome it fully. She was eagerly awaiting the return of her boyfriend, having gotten off work early today. The door opened when she was making a circuit of the bedroom, and she bolted to the entrance, alerting the dog in the process.

“Shir, I’m home!” Rickon called.

Not two seconds later, Shireen had thrown herself onto his chest, pulling him into a tight hug. Rickon stumbled under the weight, caught in the middle of trying to take off his jacket.

“Well, hello there,” he said, leaning down to peck her on the cheek. “How was your day?”

Without answering the question, Shireen pressed their lips together, kissing Rickon fiercely. He laughed against her mouth before she pulled away, beaming at him. “I’m pregnant,” she announced, biting her lip.

Rickon’s eyes widened. Then, he picked her up again, pressing kisses all over her face. “How long have you known?” he asked. “Is it—is it for real?”

Shireen nodded. She knew why Rickon was skeptical. Even she had started doubting her ability to conceive after three miscarriages since they started trying to have a baby. Still, she was confident about this one. “It’s been two months,” she said. “I went to the doctor today, and she said that everything looks perfect!”

Rickon hugged her tight, kissing her full on the mouth before kneeling down to kiss her belly. “Come on,” he said suddenly, pulling her to the door and shrugging back into his jacket. He whistled for Shaggydog and watched the giant black dog run into the room.

“Where are we going?” Shireen asked, slipping on her shoes.

“We have to tell my parents,” Rickon said. “My mom’s going to be stoked.”

The Stark family was indeed excited about the coming child. Catelyn and Ned fussed over Shireen, offering her every bit of advice they could think of along with their offer of babysitting whenever she and Rickon needed a night off. Rickon held her the entire time, running his hands over her stomach at every chance. He only left her once to have a firm, fatherly conversation with his father about his responsibilities and priorities when the baby comes. After a few hours at the Stark house, they settled back into their car and started to head home.

“Should we visit your dad?” Rickon asked, glancing away from the road to look at Shireen. “I know he doesn’t—that you don’t… He’d probably want to know.”

Shireen frowned, crossing her arms. “I think I should break it to him slowly,” she said. “He doesn’t know that we’ve been—”

“You didn’t tell him?” Rickon asked. “Shir, we’ve been trying for ages. I thought that my family was going to start giving us advice on how to have sex properly.”

“Well, I don’t think my dad would appreciate that very much,” Shireen said. She put on a mock voice. “‘Hey Dad, just wanting to let you know that I’m going to start fucking my boyfriend every night so we can have a baby. Yes, the one that you hate. Who else?’”

Rickon reached over to grab onto her hand. “Hey, he can hate me all he wants,” Rickon said. “But he’s going to be a grandfather now. Don’t you think he’d want to know?”

“We can tell him after?” Shireen suggested, giving him a big, fake smile.

“I can go tell him right now,” Rickon countered.

Shireen huffed, looking out the window. “Fine,” she said. “I’ll ask him to lunch tomorrow.”

A minute passed in silence. Then, Rickon said, “I can go with you.”

A fit of laughter hit Shireen, doubling her over in the car. Shaggydog tried to help her by licking at her elbow. Easing up a bit, Shireen reached back to pet Shaggydog between the ears. “I thought you wanted us to survive this meeting.”

“Fair point,” Rickon said, pulling into the driveway. “But I’m gonna have to talk to him eventually.”

\--

Shireen’s lunch with her father did not go well. They didn’t even make it to the food before a screaming match began and her father stormed out. After taking a few minutes to collect herself, she just went straight back home and collapsed on the couch, sobbing into a pillow. Shaggydog curled up right below her, offering licks and comfort whenever she looked up. By the time Rickon got home, she hadn’t eaten all day and had cried herself dry.

“How’d it go?” Rickon asked, twisting his mouth.

Shireen was still clutching the pillow. She merely shook her head and mumbled, “I’m hungry.”

With a small nod, Rickon crossed the room, giving her a kiss in the process. Then, he went to the kitchen and prepared dinner. Shireen was silent for the rest of the night, and he didn’t try to breach the subject again. It wasn’t until they were getting ready for bed that she went off.

“He called me a slut,” she blurted out. “In the middle of the fucking restaurant. He called me a slut, and told me that I was stupid for getting pregnant. He even tried to tell me that it would ruin my chances of finding a decent husband. Like I’d even be looking! Ugh! What kind of – Who does he think he is to – After marrying that bitch of a woman, he thinks he can tell _me_ that—”

Shireen cut herself off and threw a pillow across the room. Then, she slumped down on the bed and started crying again. Rickon took it all in stride, simply waiting out her waves of anger and offering his arms when she was worn out. She sobbed into his chest for a full thirty minutes before her tears stopped.

“Promise me that we won’t turn into my father,” she mumbled, clutching onto his shirt.

Rickon kissed her firmly on the mouth. “Not possible,” he said, stroking her hair and holding her against him.

“What are we going to do?” Shireen asked, looking around. “We can’t raise a baby in a one-bedroom apartment. What were we thinking?”

Rickon shushed her, pulling her gently under the sheets. He whistled lightly for Shaggydog who returned the pillow before lying down at their feet. “We’re going to be fine, Shir,” he said. “Our baby is going to be fine. I have money saved up. We can buy a house if you want. My parents have already offered us a place. Robb and Sansa have offered us all of their hand-me-downs. Everything is okay. You know what’s going to happen? You’re going to have a baby. We are going to love it, and care for it, and it’s going to know that it has a family that cares about it. And that will be enough.”

Shireen frowned at him. “I really don’t think we should refer to our unborn child as ‘it’,” she said firmly.

Rickon laughed, pulling her in close for another hug. He kissed her gently on the mouth before pressing their foreheads together. “Is it going to be a boy or a girl?” he asked.

“I don’t know,” Shireen said. “I can’t exactly ask the mass of cells dividing in my stomach what gender roles it’d like to adhere to!”

“You silly goose,” he said, stroking her cheek gently. “Do you want me to call our unborn child ‘he’ or ‘she’ before it gets an assigned sex?”

Shireen lapsed into silence, moving a hand over her stomach. “Either,” she said. “Just not ‘it’.”

Rickon’s hands followed hers, rubbing gently under her shirt. “Okay then.”

\--

They reached a new form of normalcy quick enough. Rickon started tending to even more things about the apartment, and Sansa and Arya came over more often to help him out. Although, more often than not, Sansa made Sandor do all the work. Shireen’s stomach began to show obvious signs of pregnancy, and her temper was becoming more and more prone to changing on the spot. Rickon bought her an extra set of dishes so she could break them whenever she got particularly frustrated, and their supply of chocolate was getting larger every day.

Shireen finally seemed to be adjusting to her mood swings when Rickon brought an invitation to her notice.

“Did you still want to go to this garden party?” he asked, shuffling through their mail. “I think they forgot to un-invite us.”

A plate shattered. Immediately, Rickon went to get the broom and sweep up the shards of ceramic. Shireen huffed at the table, crossing her arms and lifting her feet for him. “Do you want to go?” she asked back.

“I do actually,” Rickon said. He caught a murderous look on Shireen’s face before he added on. “I think I’d like the opportunity to talk to your dad. You keep seeing him alone, and I haven’t gotten to defend you yet. Besides, what if he changed his mind?”

Shireen looked pointedly at Rickon before turning to Shaggydog. “He’s lost his mind,” she told the dog.

Still, they found themselves dressed nicely and driving toward the Baratheon estate on the day of the garden party. Shireen only agreed to go if Shaggydog came, too. She claimed that he was the only one on her side anymore. Rickon tried to lighten her up, kissing her until she settled down, but Shireen claimed that it only worked because she couldn’t control her hormones. Rickon had half a mind to agree with her. After all, her stomach was starting to swell quite a bit.

Without any sort of fanfare, they found themselves roaming the party. Stannis and his girlfriend were blessedly out of sight, and Rickon was happily eating all of their hors d’oeuvres. Shireen tried to tell him off, but she also started taking some snacks. Shaggydog wandered the grounds freely, much to the joy of the children in attendance. There were no issues until someone cleared their throat loudly from behind them.

“I thought it was clear that your invitation had been rescinded.” 

Rickon turned to find a particularly busty woman wearing the slinkiest red dress he had ever seen. Trying not to choke, he looked away to see Stannis coming. “We didn’t get the memo,” he said. “And it is so hard to get an audience with Stannis.”

“He’s a very busy man,” the woman said. She held out a hand to Rickon. “I’m Meilsandre.”

Rickon ignored her. He looked around for Shireen and found her trying to hide behind a rose bush. “Come on, Shir,” he said. “Don’t you want to do this?”

“Have my father yell at me again?” she asked. “In front of my entire family? Not really.”

Leaving Shireen with Shaggydog, Rickon pushed through the crowd and found Stannis chatting with some people he didn’t know. Without stopping to think through his decisions, Rickon walked right up to them and address Stannis. 

“Haven’t seen you yet,” he said simply. “Shireen and I were wondering on when you were going to congratulate us on her pregnancy.”

The people in the party immediately started congratulating him, but Stannis soured. “I’m not sure what sort of praise that warrants,” Stannis said. “Any whore could achieve that.”

A few people around them gasped, and Rickon clenched his fists. “You bastard,” he growled out.

“The only bastard here is the one growing in her stomach,” Stannis replied. “I’ve more important things to attend to.” Stannis began to walk away when Rickon forced him back.

Staring him in the eye, he said sharply, “That’s my child you’re insulting, _your_ grandchild, and your daughter.”

Stannis brushed Rickon off, stepping away. “She’s no daughter of mine,” he spat out. “Lowering herself to the standards of a common slut. Now, you’re excused. Please leave or I will have someone show you out.”

While Stannis usually scared off most people with his cold demeanor and cruel looks, Rickon had always been unfazed by it. Now, he was positively furious, and he grabbed at the collar of Stannis’s shirt to force him back. “Insult my wife one more time,” he grit out. “And I will end you.” 

Rickon threw Stannis away, seeking out Shireen again. She was standing a few feet away, holding Shaggydog back. He was nearly to her when Stannis called out, “As if I’d care about some bastard born to a deadbeat out of wedlock.”

His fist collided with Stannis’s face before he had time to think about what he was going to do. Then, he sent his other fist flying. It hit its target with a satisfying _CRACK_. Several people gasped from the crowd, backing away from the fight. Rickon was preparing to throw another punch when someone grabbed his arm.

Shireen was at his shoulder, holding him back. “He’s not worth it,” she said. “Let’s go.”

Rickon nodded, turning back to Shireen and wrapping an arm around her. They left Stannis bleeding heavily in on the grass with no one looking after him. It wasn’t until Rickon looked around that he noticed they were missing someone. “Shaggy?” Rickon called.

There were a few loud shrieks from the yard before Shaggydog came bounding over the gate and jumping straight into the car. There were some scraps of red fabric in his fangs. Shireen was about to pull it out of his mouth when the source came into view, screaming at them. The red dress in question had lost a fair amount of fabric, and it really couldn’t afford to lose any more.

“That stupid mutt!” Melisandre yelled. “I’ll have that dog put down!”

Rickon and Shireen shared a look of disbelief before they both turned to Shaggydog and said, “Good boy.”

Shaggydog barked happily, wagging his tail about wildly. Melisandre continued to scream incoherent noises at them, but they ignored her and got in the car. Just as they were about to leave, Shireen spotted her father coming out of the house. He had a wad of gauze pressed up against his nose, and a massive bruise was blooming over his eye and across his collar. Melisandre turned her attention to Stannis, sobbing about her ruined dress, and Shireen caught a few words drifting over.

“That bitch let her mutt attack me! We should press charges—”

A deafening _SMACK_ sounded across the drive and even Rickon looked back to see what happened. Melisandre had a hand covering her face, and Stannis appeared to be spewing out a choice set of words at her, even though they couldn’t hear it. Rickon shook his head, pulling out of the drive.

It wasn’t until they were halfway home that either of them spoke. “You called me your wife,” Shireen said, rubbing her stomach.

Rickon bit his lip, looking over to her. “Yeah, um, I meant to do that better,” he said sheepishly. “But do you maybe want to marry me?”

Shireen smiled, but shook her head. “You told me you didn’t want to get married.”

“I’d do it with you,” he said. “I mean… I wouldn’t mind if you wanted to.”

Leaning over the armrest, Shireen placed her head on his shoulder. “I just wanted to have a baby with you,” she said. “That’s enough.”

“Wouldn’t your father like us better if—” Rickon tried to say.

“I don’t need his approval,” Shireen said sharply. “We’ve been living together for years. If he’s going to disinherit me or whatever just because of that, then I don’t need him. Besides, I have you.”

Rickon reached over and squeezed her hand. Shireen let out a sigh, and they drove home in silence. It wasn’t until Shireen was unlocking the door that she said, “You know, maybe we should get a bigger place.”

“That would certainly make things easier,” Rickon said. He took off his jacket and let it fall near the door. He watched Shireen slip out of her shoes and start toward the bedroom. Reaching out for her wrist, Rickon spun her around and pulled her into a kiss. He rubbed a hand over her stomach. “This keeps getting harder.”

Shireen snorted. “Easy for you to say.”

“Let me make it easier,” he said, kneeling before her.

Shireen gave him a questioning look that changed into a gasp as he pulled out a ring box. “Rickon, you’re not—”

“No, I am,” he said, grinning up at her. “I love you, Shireen. And I will make this promise to you for the rest of our lives. I will take care of you, and our baby, and anyone else who comes along. No matter how big or small our family is, I’m going to protect it and keep it safe forever. And I would be honored if you would let me call you my wife forever.”

Shireen’s bright blue eyes were swimming with tears. She choked on a sound, and Rickon opened up the box to show her a simple silver ring.

“What do you say?” he asked. “Do you want to be my wife?”

Nearly falling over him, Shireen pulled Rickon into a tight hug and breathed out a small “yes”. She kissed him soundly for a moment before he pulled away.

“She said yes!” he shouted.

Shireen hit him across the chest. “There’s no one here to hear you.”

“About that…” Rickon started slowly. He glanced about the apartment.

Then, various members of his family and all their friends started appearing from all over the apartment. They came out of the kitchen, from behind the couch, and even from the bedroom. One by one, Shireen accepted hugs and congratulations as she slowly became more and more teary.

“Congratulations, bro,” Arya said, squeezing Rickon into a tight hug. Gendry just gave him a thumbs-up from over her shoulder.

Rickon smiled sheepishly as Bran shouted about how he was going to be an uncle, and Robb tried to explain to him that he already was one (and he threatened to tell Myrcella) and they already knew Shireen was pregnant. Jon and Ygritte had called out for pizza, and the celebration of their engagement lasted long into the night. Once they started leaving at three in the morning, Rickon finally got some alone time with his fiancée.

“So everything’s good?” he asked.

“We have the best family,” Shireen said, stretching up to kiss him.

Rickon laughed, kneeling down to talk at her stomach. “You hear that?” he said. “You’re going to have the best motherfucking family in the world.”

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know what you think! And feel free to suggest prompts in the comments!


End file.
